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Organisers said the event, scheduled for Saturday 10 March, would have to be pulled as UCU members at Southampton prepare to take industrial over the next four weeks. The union said the cancellation of the event, which 10,000 were expected to attend, was a huge disappointment, but that the blame lay squarely with university leaders.

UCU members will be taking 14 days of escalating strike action from Thursday 22 February and working to contract, which means not undertaking voluntary duties. UCU said the cancellation of the event demonstrated just how much universities rely on the goodwill of staff.

The dispute centres on universities' proposals to slash the benefits of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) pension scheme. UCU says this would leave a typical lecturer almost £10,000 a year worse off in retirement than under the current set-up.

The universities' representatives - Universities UK (UUK) - are seeking to push through the changes and have refused to negotiate with UCU. The union says this has left it with no alternative but to strike. UCU is asking students to get their vice-chancellors to put pressure on UUK to return to the negotiating table.

University of Southampton UCU rep Catherine Pope said: 'It is incredibly disappointing that this event has had to be cancelled. This is yet another disruption to university life which could be avoided if the universities' representatives listened to the many voices urging them to come back to the negotiating table.

'Nobody wants to take strike action, but staff at Southampton feel they have been left with no choice. These hardline proposals would slash pensions and are simply uncalled for. Sir Christopher Snowden, the vice-chancellor of Southampton, should publicly call for Universities UK to commit to meaningful negotiations to try and get this dispute sorted out.'

UCU members at Southampton, and 61 other universities*, will walk out on Thursday 22 February as part of an escalating programme of strikes over a four-week period. The strike dates are: